Under the moniker Richard Raymond II, producer & multi-instrumentalist Rick Sniegowski beautifully creates tunes that are instrumentally diverse and highly transportive. He takes influence from Ambient Music, IDM, World Music, Jazz, & Psychedelia which in turn offer listeners a truly remarkable listening experience.

Before moving to Colorado from his rooted life in Chicago, Rick led his band Lime Forest, which showcased more of a psych-rock sound. Whether it’s with the classic songwriting approach with Lime Forest or the more atmospheric production focus of RRII, Rick’s been an advocate for home recording since he first started sharing his music in 2016.

Today Richard Raymond II has shared a lyric video for “Another Side of Ranch,” which will be featured on the upcoming debut Glimmers.  Sniegowski says about the single, “Another Side of Ranch’ is a playful tune that features a chopped-up phone recording of my fiancé and I goofing around after a night of drinking in Chicago. At the time, I’d been listening to lots of BROCKBEATS and they feature lots of vocal/voice samples in their songs. As for the music, I was messing around with DADGAD tuning on my guitar but later realized that I had it tuned DADGAE, which created some unintentional, yet warmly welcomed, 9 chords. It’d take me a minute to re-learn how to play it.”

We recently caught up Sniegowski to chat more.

How has living in Colorado been for you since relocating there?

It’s been life-changing, to say the least. I moved here with my now wife in May of 2021. We hadn’t lived together, so that was an adjustment, and we also had our first child, Dorthy Rose, in October of 2022. As far as living in the state of Colorado goes, it’s been amazing. The beautiful places we have access to visit on any given weekend, as well as the scenic hiking spots that are just a 10-15 min drive from our place, have really encouraged a more active, outdoorsy lifestyle, which is what we’d hoped. I also work full-time as a work-from-home freelancer, whereas I was closing down a bar 4-5 nights a week back in Chicago. My life’s completely different and I feel much healthier. I do miss my friends though!

Have you ever looked at the decision of moving from Chicago as beneficial in terms of writing music?

I have! There’s definitely not as robust of a scene here in Colorado Springs, though there are plenty of talented people in the area, and performing is not too much of a priority with this project. This project is about indulging in the studio and layering all kinds of stuff to create beautiful recordings for others to listen to on their own. Though I have been playing out with my other group, Old 45’s, I enjoy having everything always ready to record in my studio so I can record whenever my schedule and inspiration line up accordingly. I want to record myself, and others, in my studio…I’m not as focused on becoming a “big band” where your livelihood becomes dependent on touring.

What propelled you to change from doing music as Lime Forest to Richard Raymond II?

During lockdown, I began making sample packs for 5Pin Media. Making hundreds of loops and one shots started to influence the music I was making to be more “electronic” in nature. I also began singing much less since I was listening to lots of jazz, ambient and other instrumental music. I always kinda considered Lime Forest to be songs through a Beatles-type framework, whereas I’m usually channeling Aphex Twin and Brian Eno with RRII stuff. It may not come out that way, but that’s usually where my head’s at. If I find myself writing more traditional pop songs, I’ll know it’s time to make another Lime Forest record.

With Glimmers you tuned the guitars to incorporate DADGAE instead of DADGAD. Could you explain what that result meant to writing?

Woah. Everything’s actually either in standard or D standard except “Another Side of Ranch”, which is DADGAE. It was an accident! I actually meant to be in DADGAD and later realized I was DADGAE, which ends up throwing a 9th on the top of a lot of the chords. Unknown Mortal Orchestra is a band that inspired me to use a lot of 9s back in the day, so they were welcomed. I believe “Sammy Rose”, my first song as RRII, is in the more common DADGAD. I don’t play open tunings a ton, but I feel like things pour out with ease when I do decide to tune something differently. It takes the theory out of it because it’s too hard to translate everything. I just follow my ear, like I did before I knew what was what. Open tunings are a great way to get out of your own way.

Have you been wanting to experiment with tuning for some time?

I’ve had my primary electric guitar in D standard for years. I periodically switch to open G or DADGAD, but it usually doesn’t stay there for too long. It would probably take me a bit to relearn most the stuff I’ve written in alternate tunings.

When crafting the instrumentals on Glimmers, you primarily push forward with jazz and ambient sound. Was this decision in part due to wanting to shift away from your time during Lime Forest?

Kinda sorta. The last Lime Forest record, “Big Hits”, kinda has a jazzy influence to it. I’ve always liked ambient music—I got into jazz in my early 20’s—but I didn’t really feel like I had the equipment, or chops for jazz, to make that sort of stuff.

You focus on recording at home primarily. Why is that?

It’s what I’ve always done. I paid to have the second Lime Forest EP, Catharsis recorded, mixed and mastered. Though the results were better than anything I could do at the time, it confirmed that there really wasn’t much that I was missing doing it by myself. At this point, I know exactly how to get the sound that I want, so I’m not sure why I’d have anyone else do it.

What else should we be expecting from you? Other projects on the horizon?

My other project is called Old 45’s. We call ourselves a psychedelic jazz soul improv duo. I play drums, record the bass on the records, and handle the mixing and mastering. My bandmate, Pete, writes all our songs and plays guitar and keys. He’s a phenomenal writer and I find myself incorporating a lot of chord tricks that he uses within my own songs. We just put out an EP called Wahsatch Sahwatch that we’re pretty happy with. You can find it anywhere.